Pakistan stirs Afghan opposition's ire by meeting with Taliban

Published: Sunday, October 21, 2001

Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan {AP} Pakistan confirmed Saturday that it was holding talks with a senior Taliban commander on the makeup of a future Afghan government  a move that drew a sharp retort from the opposition alliance that is fighting the Islamic militia in the north.

Pakistan is trying to court Taliban figures who might be acceptable candidates in a new government if the ruling militia collapses under the relentless U.S. military assault.

It wants to ensure that the next government includes members favorable to Pakistan, which had been the Taliban's closest ally until last month's terrorist attacks in the United States and President Pervez Musharraf's decision to back the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign.

During a press conference Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan confirmed that key officials were meeting in Pakistan with Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani, a major Taliban commander in Khost province, to discuss participation in a broad-based replacement government.

Haqqani, however, showed no signs of switching allegiances and was quoted by a Pakistani newspaper as saying he was eagerly awaiting the fight against U.S. ground troops.

Haqqani was a leading commander during the 1979-1989 war against Soviet invaders and was even received at the White House by President Ronald Reagan. In the Cold War era, the United States backed fighters who battled the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

Last week, Pakistani sources said Taliban foreign minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil made a secret trip to Islamabad and asked Pakistan to urge the United States to slow its bombing campaign to give Taliban moderates time to reassess their refusal to hand over terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.

Both Muttawakil and Haqqani have showed no public sign of breaking with the Taliban's hard-line leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.